Garnet Basque operated Canada West magazine from 1985 to 1994, as well as Sunfire Publications in Langley, B.C.
He published numerous titles about lost treasures and frontier settlements under
various imprints.

Our story began on a clear August morning in 1896 as George McAuley
climbed into a buckboard at Camp McKinney’s, a dusty little B.C. gold mining
town. McAuley, co-owner of the famous Cariboo Amelia mine, was visiting for
a few days from Spokane, Washington, and had decided to make the journey. On
the floor boards behind him, concealed in saddlebags, were three gold bars
with a combined weight of 656 ½ ounces.

This represented the monthly clean-up of the mine, which, after delivery to
Midway, was trans-shipped to the San Francisco mint. Forgoing the customary
precaution of an armed guard, McAuley headed the buckboard up the dusty single
street between unpainted frame buildings and out of town. The date: Tuesday,
August 18, 1896. As he rounded a turn near McMynn’s Meadows, about two or three miles from Camp, he
jerked his team to a sudden stop. Barring the road, Winchester at the ready,
stood a masked bandit. The robber motioned for McAuley to throw down the
saddlebags. McAuley, who may have been reckless for leaving town without an
escort, wasn’t completely stupid. Though armed, he could see the obvious
disadvantage of arguing with a loaded rifle, and promptly threw down the bags.

"Now drive on and don’t turn back," warned the robber.

Whipping the team to a gallop, he proceeded down the trail for about a
mile, where he found a spot wide enough to turn the buckboard, and hastened
back to Camp to spread the alarm.

When McAuley’s partner, James Monahan, was notified of the robbery, his
first act was a quick check of all the mining personnel. Everyone was
accounted for, Monahan then sent McAuley for the Provincial Police stationed
at Midway, while he organized a posse and headed for the scene of the
robbery. A superficial search of the site and surrounding woods failed to
unearth any new leads, however, and they returned to town.

Later that afternoon Constables William McMynn and Isaac Dinsmore arrived
at Camp McKinney and, after asking some routine questions, were taken to the
actual scene of the robbery. It was Dinsmore who apparently discovered the
empty saddlebags which had been missed by the previous searchers. They also
unearthed "some soda biscuits, apples, some raw fresh eggs, part of a bottle
of whiskey, and a bottle half filled with water."

This was reasoned to be the robber’s good cache as he waited in ambush.
These articles shed no new light on the mystery, however.

There was nothing substantial to go on, and for some time a lull
developed in which no new leads were uncovered. Because of the isolation of
Camp McKinney (it could be reached by only two roads), it was deemed
impossible for a robber to flee the area. Yet, the general feeling now was
that he had a clean getaway.

Rewards totaling $3,500 were then posted by the mining company, $2,000
for the arrest and conviction of the guilty party, and $1,500 for the
recovery of the bullion.

The reward money again stimulated interest, and it wasn’t long after that
the Company received their first big break. It came in the form of a letter
addressed to Monahan, and was later published in the November 14, 1896 issue
of the Grand Forks Miner. It read:

I met a man in a saloon in Oroville at about the end of May. We fell to
drinking together and he told me that his name was Matthew Roderick, from
Spokane, that he was very hard up and on his way to get the bullion from
Camp McKinney, an easy job, he said.

He had a gun, a Winchester I think, and was going to stage a holdup. He
liked the way I held my liquor, said I’d be one with a cool head and wanted
me to come in with him on the job. I didn’t want to. Roderick said he was a
dead shot and he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if I revealed what passed
between us that night.

"We went to Camp Mckinney where we both got work. After we had been
working three months, and nothing happened, I left for Trail Creek late in
August. After I’d been there three days I read an account of the robbery of
the Camp McKinney bullion in the Spokesman Review, so I thought I’d better
let you know about Roderick."

Armed with fresh information, Monahan did some quick checking and soon
verified the fact that a man named Roderick had been in the mine’s employ at
that time. He also learned that Roderick was far from being a model worker.

Each week after collecting his pay he would indulge in one of the
frequent poker games held at Cameron’s Saloon. He never left the game until
he was broke, often ignoring his shift for two or three days in the process.

Roderick had lived in a small cabin on the outskirts of the town. On the
day of the robbery, and for a few days previous, he had been absent from
work suffering from back ailment. Several days after the robbery he had
decided to return to his Seattle home to recuperate. The miners, feeling
sorry for the ailing Roderick, had passed the hat and collected $84 for his
passage home. Those who recalled seeing him leave were convinced he had
taken only a blanket with him. In those days it was recognized as a sign of
respectability for a man to travel with his own blankets.

Further investigation revealed several old whiskey bottles in a dump
behind Roderick’s cabin bearing the same label as those discovered near the
scene of the robbery. This, and other clues indicated that Roderick was
their man.

The Cariboo Mining Company promptly enlisted the aid of the Pinkerton
Detective Agency in Washington to keep Roderick under surveillance. They had
no difficulty locating him as he was listed in the Seattle directory as a
civil engineer.

The Pinkertons even had a lady operative move in next to Rodericks. In
neighborly chit-chat she eventually learned that, since returning from
British Columbia, Roderick had paid up some back taxes and had taken out a
$3,000 insurance policy, a neat trick for a man who left Camp McKinney under
the charity of the miners.

Certain Roderick was their man, and convinced that he had only managed to
smuggle out the smaller bar (worth $1,600), they continued their vigilance.

Then one day, unaware that the information would lead to his eventual
death, Mrs. Roderick announced that her husband was preparing to leave on a
business trip "one that will make us rich," she said.

Unconscious of his being followed, Roderick traveled by train to Loomis,
Washington, where he purchased a gray saddle horse and rode north for the
B.C. boundary. Matthew was apparently returning for his stolen loot.

The town was a fever of activity in preparation for his arrival. Armed
men were positioned at strategic vantage points around Bald Mountain,
guarding every approach. Tom Graham, and an Indian called Alexine (or Long
Alex), were hidden at the forks of the Sidley and Fairview Roads. From this
vantage point they commanded an excellent view of the surrounding
countryside.

That evening, October 26, 1896, the suspect was observed making his way
up the dusty mountain road toward them. Alexine was immediately dispatched
to town to give the alarm. Two Provincial Constables, Louis Cuppage and R.W.
Dean were in Cameron’s Saloon with Superintendent Keane when the Indian
burst in with the news. Arming themselves, they set off down the trail. It
was then about 10:00 P.M. Outside, thick clouds obscured the moon in what
was reported as being "one of the blackest nights of the year."

The small party had been walking about a mile when they perceived an
object on the road, however the utter darkness made it impossible to
distinguish what the object was, so they continued cautiously. After walking
a bit further they heard horses hooves approaching.

The men stopped and waited, the blackness engulfing them.

Suddenly Keane was heard to ask, "Is that you Matt?"

There was a death-like silence for perhaps a half a minute, after which
the night was shattered by a loud shot. Dean, fearing Roderick had felled
Keane, fired his rifle at the dark figure of a man he had glimpsed in the
flash of the preceding shot. His shot was expended for nothing, however, for
it had been Keane’s weapon that had spoken earlier. His bullet had entered
Roderick just below the left chest, penetrated the heart, and lodged in the
back muscles. Dean’s bullet had been fired at the already dead, falling body
of Roderick.

Roderick’s rifle, which Keane later testified had been aimed at him, was
found to contain a rag stuffed in the muzzle. But it, and the pistol
recovered from the body was covered with rust, indicating they had just been
unearthed. A small amount of money was also found on the body.

Under Roderick’s coat was discovered a special vest with two pockets, one
under each armpit, large enough to accommodate the two large gold bars.
There was no sign of the bullion, however, and it was believed that Roderick
was returning to the secret cache when he was killed.

A coroner’s inquest into Roderick’s death, held at Camp McKinney on
November 11, 1896, decided it was a case of "justifiable homicide," and
exonerated Keane of all blame. Regardless, he was brought to trial in Vernon
in June, 1897 on a manslaughter charge, and found guilty.

However, the judge, Chief Justice McCall, said: "You have been found
guilty in a technical and legal sense," and sentenced him to one day in
jail, which Keane had already served, and he was thereby released.

Roderick’s death left many unanswered questions, and the author, in an
effort to determine first the validity of the story, and secondly if the
treasure does exist, began to sift through most sources of information.

That the robbery took place, and the gold bricks were never recovered, is
a matter of record and undisputed fact, although it was generally believed
that Roderick had managed to smuggle out the smaller bar. However, there are
some discrepancies.

Despite reports by various writers that the McKinney bullion shipments
were "shrouded in mystery" and "escorted under armed guards," this simply
was not the case. Two newspapers of the period make that all too clear. The
Grand Forks Miner, August 22, 1896, wrote: "These shipments have been made
regularly for months past, and the public always knew within a day or two of
the exact time at which they would pass through, so the only surprise
created by the holdup is that it had not happened before."

And the September 5, 1896 issue of the Province dispelled all rumors of
an armed guard when they wrote: "The robber’s success is not in any way a
cause for surprise. What is astonishing is that some enterprising scoundrel
had not had a try at ‘raising the wind’ at the expense of so small an amount
of labor or difficulty. Ever since gold was first produced from the Cariboo
Mine, bullion had been carried out as if it were of no more value than so
much yellow bacon, without the slightest care or precaution being taken to
guard for its arrival at its destination."

So much for the reported secrecy and security. Another point which many
writers seem to disagree on, is who actually drove the buckboard on that
fateful morning 100 years ago, McAuley or Keane? For the record, it was
McAuley, as verified by the same issue of the Province. "Mr. G.B. McAuley,
of Spokane, secretary of the Cariboo Mining Company, was ‘held up’ by a
masked robber on his return from the mine in charge of three gold bricks."

Some writers claim that candles, matches and goggles were taken from
Roderick’s body shortly after his death. Acting on this, they suggest that
he buried the bullion in one of the numerous old water-filled shafts. This
could not be confirmed, but it seems highly unlikely that Roderick would go
to such elaborate measures to hide gold when he was pressed for time. It
seems more likely that he would bury it in a convenient, safe spot between
the scene of the robbery and the town.

One thing is puzzling, however. Roderick’s rifle and pistol, rusty and
dirt-covered, were definitely buried. It seems odd that he would bury
weapons in one location and the gold in another, when it would be more
convenient to inter them together. If this was so, and not realizing he was
under suspicion, Roderick may have planned to visit the town for a day or
two before retrieving the treasure on his way out.

Or perhaps he was indeed on the way to recover it when fatally shot. All
this is supposition, of course. But the robbery did take place, and the gold
has never been recovered. And at today’s prices the two remaining gold bars
are worth over $190,000.

Camp McKinney is deserted now. Even the ghosts have gone. Only a few
piles of decaying lumber and an occasional log cabin mark its passing. A
dusty, but good, gravel road leads to it from Rock Creek and passes through
what was once its main street.

Somewhere around here are two gold bars worth $190,000. They are probably
buried in a shallow hole, and should be easy to detect with a good metal
detector. However, getting close enough to detect them may be another
question.